George H. Dale was born on December 17, 1818, in Burke County, North Carolina, to Alexander Dale. His father was a farmer who owned $150 of personal property by 1850. He married Susan Stanford around 1841, and they had at least nine children: Joseph, born around 1842; William, born around 1844; Martha, born around 1846; David, born around 1847; George, born around 1849; Mary, born around 1852; John, born around 1854; Albert, born around 1856; and Amanda, born around 1860. They lived in Burke County, and by 1850, he owned $50 of real estate. A decade later, he owned $210 of personal property.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on August 31, 1863, and mustered in as a private in Company E of the 16^th North Carolina Infantry later that day. The regiment took part in the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, the Battle of Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. He was wounded on June 13, 1864, and he spent the next few months in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. He returned to his regiment by September 1864. Union forces captured him near Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, on April 2, 1865, and they imprisoned him in Point Lookout, Maryland. He swore an oath of allegiance on June 26, 1865. He returned to Burke County after the war and resumed his work as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $400 of real estate and $315 of personal property. His wife died in 1877, and he passed away in Burke County on January 18, 1893.

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